Domino Day 2007 was held on 16th November, in Leeuwarden, The
Netherlands. It was broadcasted live or semi-live in 12 countries. The
theme of this year was Falling into Life. A total number of 4
500 000 dominoes were placed by 85 builders from 12 countries. 81,6%
of the total placed dominoes fell - 3 671 465.

The 16th World Puzzle Championship which took
place October 6–11, 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has brought to US
Puzzle Team its 10th team title! The second place went to Japan and
the third - to Belgium.

World Sudoku Championships are held for two years
already while there wasn't a US Sudoku National Championship before
the end of the last month. The idea to launch a national contest for
the phenomenally popular puzzle came from Brian Tierney, chief
executive officer of Philadelphia Media Holdings. He contacted Will
Shortz, the puzzle editor of the New York Times and the nation's
leading puzzle expert, who manages American teams of competitive
puzzle solvers. The rest is the history.

The 4th World Rubik's Cube Championship took
place on October 5-7 in Budapest, Hungary. Budapest also hosted the
World Rubik's Cube Championship in 1982, so this world championship
was the 25th anniversary.

In 2005, in Eger - Hungary, Brazil was voted unanimously to host the
16th World Puzzle Championship. And here we are! This weekend the 16th
WPC starts in the wonderful and sunny Rio de Janeiro. The Championship
will last from October 6th to October 11th. In conjunction with WPC
the WPF (World Puzzle Federation) Congress will be held.

Four winning designers, five selected puzzles and six awarded prizes -
all are the results of this year's Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design
Competition which took place in conjunction with IPP27, this August in
Gold Coast, Australia. 55 puzzles (one more than previous year)
entered this year's Competition which goal remained intact - to
promote and recognize innovative new designs of mechanical puzzles.

This year's Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) will be staged north of London
in Potters Bar from Saturday August 18th to Monday August 27th.

For the eleventh straight year MSO offers a wonderful opportunity for
competing in “thinking” games. Since the first Olympiad in London in
1997 there has been a movement created which is spreading worldwide.
Since 1997 Mind Sports Olympiads have been held in Czech Republic,
Dubai, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore and most recently in Australia
with The Netherlands to follow in March 2008.

There are different competitions to cater for each game and skill. The
format for most tournaments will be the Swiss system, in which all of
the contestants play in every round. None of the contests is a
knock-out tournament, except for some Backgammon Tournaments operating
a system of knock-out.

For more detailed information on the event, including schedule, please
visit the
MSO
official website.

Crossword lovers unite! Finally, there's a game show for you!
Legendary game-show guru Merv Griffin, the creator of Wheel of Fortune
and Jeopardy, among others, is now launching a new game show - Let's
Do Crosswords!

Merv Griffinân's™ Crosswords is a brand new game show that is looking
for contestants now! Win cash and trips! If you live in the greater
Los Angeles area or are planning a trip out here before the end of
October, please email:
Iwanttobeacontestant@letsdocrosswords.com or call: (323) 762-8282.

Let's Do Crosswords premieres nationally September 10th on NBC.

For more information, please visit Let's Do Crosswords official
website.

This year's MathFest will be held in sunny San Jose, CA on August 3-5.
It will be a great celebration of mathematics, mathematical biology,
and the history of mathematics, a program rich with varied events and
activities for mathematicians, teachers, students, and everyone who
loves mathematics!

This summer MathFest will be meeting jointly with Pi Mu Epsilon, the
Society for Mathematical Biology, the Euler Society, and the Women
Count Conference. The MF's program will include the scientific
program, mini courses, social events and student activities

If you are interested in more detailed information about MathFest,
please, visit their official
website.

The 48th International Mathematical Olympiad (the "IMO 2007") starts
on July 19 in Hanoi, Vietnam and will be held till July 31, 2007. It
will be a perfect chance for young mathematics enthusiasts from all
over the world to demonstrate their abilities and to foster friendly
international relationships among mathematicians of all countries.
Every year the IMO is hosted by a different country. All the
participants are high school students.

During the Olympiad the participants have very good occasions to come
together and develop international friendship and to blend in with the
beauty of the host country. A number of excursions are planned to be
held. The key event is the Contest, where each contestant has to solve
three problems in each of the two days in his/her own language during
4.5 hours.

The last day is for the Closing Ceremony, and the Gold, Silver, and
Bronze medals will be awarded for the excellent performances.

We wish the participants to enjoy the international friendship, the
Contest and the beauty of Vietnam.

The submission of the entries to the seventh annual competition has
ended on July 5, 2007, which is approximately 1 month prior to the
Puzzle Party. As usual, the aim of the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design
Competition is to promote and recognize innovative new designs of
mechanical puzzles. All invited Puzzle Party attendees may vote for
the Puzzlers' Awards. The judging committee will select the Jury
Prizes, as inspired by the entered puzzles. All awards will be
announced on August 12, 2007, during the Puzzle Party.

We wish good luck to the participants and are looking forward to
announcing of the winners!

This year’s National Puzzlers' League (NPL) Convention is held in Ann
Arbor, Michigan, July 12–15. It is the 168-th annual Convention -
MichiCon '07. The
Conventions are held since 1883. Every year they are held at
different place. The activities at a Convention usually include a
Host's reception, a lively Friday night program, two “official”
Cryptic Crosswords, competition on Saturday afternoon, and a Main
Event on Saturday night. There are always games (24 hours a day)
during such a Convention.

Next year's NPL Convention will be held in Denver, CO -
Conorado 2008.

For more information on the NPL and its Conventions, please, visit
their official
website.

Two years ago, in Eger, Hungary, Brazil was voted unanimously to host
the 16th World Puzzle Championship. It will be held in the wonderful
and sunny Rio de Janeiro. This year, WPC will be even more fun and
exciting as Rio de Janeiro is one of the most interesting and friendly
cities of Brazil. Besides the puzzles, you will be surrounded by
splendid beaches, natural beauties and enjoyable people, in a country
symbol of soccer and in a city symbol of Samba!

The 1st Sudoku National Championship will be held at the Pennsylvania
Convention Center, in the downtown of Philadelphia, on October 19-21,
2007. The Championship will be sponsored by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The event will be hosted by Will Shortz and sanctioned by the U.S.
Puzzle Championship organization.

The October tournament weekend will feature fun puzzle games for
serious and casual Sudoku players, culminating in a one-day
championship to determine the best Sudoku player in the United States.

The Championship will have three levels of solvers – beginner,
intermediate and advanced, and will include a weekend of fun for
Sudoku enthusiasts. There will also be top prizes for winners in the
beginner and intermediate categories. The winner will receive a
$10,000 prize and an expense-paid trip to the 2008 World Sudoku
Championship in India as a member of the U.S. Sudoku Team. The
intermediate winner will be awarded $5,000 and the beginner level
winner will receive $3,000. There will also be trophies and $100
prizes awarded to players in a variety of categories such as age, area
of residence and years of Sudoku experience.

The competition is open to people from under 10 years of age to over
80.

2007 National School SCRABBLE Championship (NSSC) will be held on May
4-5, at The Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI.

This year 100 teams of two students each will vie for title of
National Champion and the money prize of $5000. Kids representing
private and public schools, libraries, home school programs... even a
Girl Scout team from Arizona will compete in the Championship. ESPN
will film the event for broadcast later in the year. Airdates will
appear at
Full
NSSC website as soon as they are available.

Mensa Mind Games® will take place April 20-22 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Once
again this will be a traditional 40-hour gaming marathon with Mensans
judging and critiquing games released in the past year and then
awarding the Mensa Select® seal to the top five of them.

Board games, card games and other types of table and party games are
eligible for the event. Games may be for one or more players. The
competition is not open to games that are incomplete or not yet in
production. Video, electronic, or computer games or any games that
take an inordinately long time to set up and play cannot be
accommodated. The entered games are judged on aesthetics,
instructions, originality, play appeal and play value.

The 2nd World Sudoku Championship (WSC) has ended on April 1, 2007 in
Prague, Czech Republic. It revealed the new World Sudoku Champion -
Thomas Snyder, USA. The first runner-up is Yuhei Kusui from Japan and
the second runner-up is Peter Hudák from Slovakia.

Contestants from over 30 countries and 24 full national teams have
been competing in the Championship. The top three teams are: Japan -
1st place, USA - 2nd place, Czech Republic - 3rd place.

The nation's oldest and largest crossword competition will take place
in Stamford, Connecticut, on March 23-25. It will be the 30th
anniversary of the Tournament.

Solvers tackle eight original crosswords created and edited specially
for this event. The judges and referees include leading names in
crossword puzzling. Prizes are awarded in more than 20 categories.
This year the grand prize is $5,000.

You can
register and get the details of the
program online. If you want to compete but can't attend, there is
a possibility for you to
Play by Mail or to
Solve Online. For the latter option you can compare your scores
with other online solvers. The online competition is for fun and
bragging rights only, not for prizes. The 2007 puzzles will be posted
at about the same time as they are played in Stamford at the
tournament and will be available through December 2007.

The number is Pi, 3.1415926535…ad infinitum. The number you get when you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, and it cannot be expressed as a fraction. It continues forever.

Come to the Exploratorium on Wednesday, March 14, and gather around the Pi Shrine to perform pi-related rites and eat ritual food -- will it be apple pie or pizza pie or just pie in the sky? - in honor of this special number. Sing Pi Day songs, bead a pi string, and circumnavigate the pi shrine. It’s all part of Pi Day celebrations, which culminate, appropriately enough, on March 14 at 1:59pm. That’s the third month, the fourteenth day, at 1:59pm, corresponding to the first 6-digits of Pi.

An additional reason to choose March 14 as Pi Day - Albert Einstein’s birthday!

The first Open German Optimizing Puzzle Championship will be held during March, 2007.

The Optimizing Puzzle Championship will consist of 20 optimizing puzzles. There will be four different categories with five optimizers each. The participants will have about a month time to find and submit their best answers. In the end the certificates and champions' cups will be awarded to the best participants in each category and to the overall winner.

This is an open Championship. It means participation is open to puzzle solvers from all over the world. No need to know any German word, since all instructions are provided in English too.

If you want to participate you have to register once. From March, 1st 2007 the puzzle descriptions will become available via the official web site. Puzzle descriptions will include the instructions for the puzzles and the score you might obtain. Also the page for submitting your answers will become available. Answers can be corrected and improved as long as the Championship lasts. Your best answer will be saved and can be activated at any time.

Silicon Valley Puzzle Day is held today, on Saturday, February 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Sobrato High School.

The event is a fundraiser for the Beyond Books Campaign, an effort of the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library to raise funds for art and equipment for the new MH library that's currently under construction. In addition to being a fundraiser, Silicon Valley Puzzle Day serves as the kick-off of our community outreach campaign. The event features a crossword puzzle tournament (like in the movie Wordplay) and a Sudoku tournament. In addition to the puzzle-solving tournaments, organizers plan to offer workshops (20-30 minutes) on related topics.

For more detailed information on the event, please visit its official website.

The 2nd World Sudoku Championship (WSC) will be held March 28 – April 1, 2007 in Prague, Czech Republic. The event is organized under the auspices of the president of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus.

The competitions will be divided into two sections. First, individual competition: maximum six contestants plus one non-competing captain from each country. Second, team competition: four top players from individual competitions.

The deadline for the teams (competitors) to sign in is February 28, 2007, or immediately after national qualification.

Eternity II, the follow up to Eternity (released in 1999), has been
launched at London Toy Fair on January, 24. It is planned to hit shop
shelves on July 28, 2007.

The puzzle consists of 256 square pieces with different patterns on
their sides which must match when the squares are aligned to each
other. The only solution to the puzzle is now in a London bank vault.
Eternity II has been developed by the original inventor, Lord
Christopher Monckton, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher.

Two smaller "Clue" puzzles (72 and 36 pieces respectively) accompany
the main one. Just like with the original Eternity they are developed
to help solvers discover locations of key pieces.

The original Eternity has been solved in 18 months. With Eternity II
solvers will have time until December 31, 2008 to submit their
entries, which will be date-stamped and then analyzed. The first
correct puzzle to be sent in will be the winner! How fast a solver
has to be this time to overcome Eternity?

A new World Record has been set by Dan Dzoan at the Caltech Winter
Rubik's Cube Competition 2007 which took place in the Exploratorium in
San Francisco on January 13. Dan solved the 3X3x3 Rubik's Cube
one-handed in just 17.90 seconds!

The start of the year is bringing the first puzzle exhibition. From
the North. A new puzzle exhibition by Matti Linkola - one of the most
prominent Finnish puzzlers - starts on January 18, 2007 in the Museum
of Technology in Helsinki, Finland. This will be Matti's biggest
exhibition so far. The exhibition is expected to last for a whole year
- till January, 2008.

For more information about Matti, the President of the Finnish Puzzle
Association (FPA), his collection and his previous puzzle exhibition
in Kajaani in Kainuu Museum (2001), please visit
Matti's Puzzle Page.